Senate to Consider Bill Ending Teacher Representation This Week

Last week, Senator Julia Lynn, demonstrating her anti-teacher zealotry, railroaded a bill through the Commerce Committee that, if enacted as it came out of committee, would essentially end the ability of teachers to have representation in collective bargaining.

Senate Bill 469 would require that a teachers association would have to be recertified as the representative every three years by gaining more than 50% or all persons eligible to vote in a representation election. The ballot would be required to have as candidates the current representative, any other organization that sought recognition, and an option of “no representation.”

Under the required vote standard, an organization that received even 100% of the votes cast, could lose the election if only 49% of those eligible to vote did so. If this standard were to be applied to Kansas Senate elections, no member of the current Senate Commerce Committee would have been elected – even the two who ran unopposed!

Another section of the bill says that if the Department of Labor was unable to get to a vote in a district, the local representative would automatically be decertified and could not stand for a new election for a period of 36 months, leaving teachers in that district without a contract or representative for a three full years! The Department of Labor does not employ enough staff to manage the nearly 300 elections called for in the bill.

This bill was opposed in the hearing by the Kansas Association of School Boards, United School Administrators of Kansas, the Kansas School Superintendents Association, and Kansas NEA. Those who stood for the bill were the Kansas Policy Institute’s Dave Trabert, the Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity, and the Association of American Educators which is funded in large part by right wing foundations.

Lynn, after hearing from the anti-union proponents and before opponents were given a chance to speak, announced publicly that the bill would be passed out of committee and rushed to the full Senate. Lynn apparently does not like to be bothered by anyone whose thoughts conflict with hers.

True to her word, the bill was railroaded out of committee but not before Lynn had to deny a Democratic Senator an opportunity to offer an amendment and then cutting off KNEA General Counsel David Schauner in the middle of a response to a question from a committee member.

There are a number of things that disturb us about the handling of this bill.

One is the obvious lack of respect for dissenting opinions and willingness to ignore fundamental democratic principles demonstrated by Senator Lynn in her management of the committee and the issue.

The other is the bill itself whose sole purpose is to deny teachers – and only teachers – any voice in their working conditions, salaries, and benefits.

To weigh in on this bill with Senators before the debate in the full Senate, click here.